Marketing Mishaps - Oops, we forgot to put our LOCATION on our billboard!

Marketing Mishaps - Oops, we forgot to put our LOCATION on our billboard!

Marketing specialists have many different ideas of what's most important when it comes to reaching your audience. Mine is this: MAKE IT SIMPLE!

The other day, I passed a billboard for a new Italian restaurant in Phoenix. These people obviously threw down some serious cash for this ad campaign - it's a large billboard, located on a prominent corner. And though it's the only one I've seen, there may be others.

What was on the billboard?

• The name of the restaurant, in large letters.
• A large art deco-style graphic of a martini glass
• Their Web site

That's it. No address. No location. Not even a hint as to where this place is located. But they want me to visit, right? Immediately, I figured the location must be directly under - or in very close proximity to - the billboard itself. Why else would they fail to include the location? No - the restaurant is nowhere in the immediate vicinity of the billboard.

So ... these folks are counting on several things that are unlikely to happen:

1. Readers of the billboard without instant Internet access will REMEMBER the Web site.
2. Readers of the billboard without instant Internet access will REMEMBER to look up the Web site.
3. Readers of the billboard without instant Internet access will CARE ENOUGH to look up the Web site.

Those are three huge assumptions, especially when it comes to spending the kind of money a billboard costs. [On average the cost for artwork and installation of the media on the billboard is $3,000; advertising rates depend on impress level, ranging from $5,000 to $500,000 (the higher the qualify of the artwork and the larger the demographic group, the higher the price); minimum contract is usually 16 weeks.]

I'd be interested in knowing what kind of response rate this particular restaurant receives. Speaking of which, what are the chances they're asking new diners how they heard about the restaurant? Probably pretty slim.

Marketing is not rocket science. But it does involve thinking and consideration of the end user's perception and reception. Overlooking the obvious is a freqent mistake of novice marketers. We'll touch on other ways marketers overlook the obvious in upcoming posts in this series.

Have any feedback? Drop a comment below!

Other Posts in This Series

Oops, we forgot to put our LOCATION on our billboard!

We're moving our physical location, so we've STOPPED taking orders!

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